March 31, 2011

Saleh Crackdowns in Northern Yemen

More than 230 people were injured when pro-regime security forces out of uniform and thugs some in female uniform attacked the anti-government protesters in the square of change in Hajjah province in northern Yemen.

Eyewitnesses said head of the ruling party branch in the city and secretary general of the local council were among the attackers, as medical sources said that at least 80 people were in critical condition.

Some of the protesters were injured in nerve gas and live bullets fired at them from over the governmental and other buildings nearby the Hawra square, where thousands of people have been staging a sit-in demanding the ouster of the regime for almost a month, they said.

The attackers spread in many areas with some of them stationed at the square gate in female uniform, who directly fired live bullets at the anti-government protesters, they made clear.They also said that the security forces in their uniform intervened later but the attackers were seen joining them at a time when members in the General People's Congress, the ruling party, are still giving nerve and tear gas canisters to the regime supporters.

In other cities, hundreds of thousands have been continuing their protests and sit-ins to call for the resignation of President Saleh, who urged his loyalists to gather on Friday in the capital.

Saleh has been mobilizing his loyalists in various provinces in counter-allies to convince the people he has not lost his constitutional legitimacy as the public pressure mounts on him to stand down.

"No one wants chaos in Yemen,” one Western diplomat tells The Wall Street Journal. “A compromised and de-legitimized Saleh is better than chaos.”

This thinking, so common in Washington, automatically assumes that a post-Saleh government will be more chaotic than his own rule. But his government wouldn’t be collapsing if it was stable.

Of particular note, Saleh's three military liaisons with the U.S. government are his eldest son Ahmed, who commands the U.S.-funded and trained Republican Guard, and two nephews, Yahya and Ammar, head the internal security forces and another elite counterterrorism unit. The opposition is seeking a political ban on all three men, something Saleh is not inclined to accept.

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James Gundun is a political scientist and counterinsurgency analyst based in Washington D.C.*All analysis is original unless otherwise noted.*